Strongest model-independent bound on the lifetime of Dark Matter

Abstract

Dark Matter is essential for structure formation in the late Universe so it must be stable on cosmological time scales. But how stable exactly? Only assuming decays into relativistic particles, we report an otherwise model independent bound on the lifetime of Dark Matter using current cosmological data. Since these decays affect only the low-$\ell$ multipoles of the CMB, the Dark Matter lifetime is expected to correlate with the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ as well as curvature ${\Omega }_k$. We consider two models, including $r$ and $r+{\Omega }_k$ respectively, versus data from Planck, WMAP, WiggleZ and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, with or without the BICEP2 data (if interpreted in terms of primordial gravitational waves). This results in a lower bound on the lifetime of CDM given by 160Gyr (without BICEP2) or 200Gyr (with BICEP2) at 95% confidence level.

15 pages, 5 figures. Prepared for submission to JCAP

References in corpus (7)

• Decaying warm dark matter and neutrino masses
• Model-Independent Bound on the Dark Matter Lifetime
• X-ray photons from late-decaying majoron dark matter
• Cosmological Constraints on Invisible Decay of Dark Matter
• Dark-matter decays and Milky Way satellite galaxies
• Weak Gravitational Lensing as a Method to Constrain Unstable Dark Matter
• Constraining Decaying Dark Matter

Cited by in corpus (50)

• The $H_0$ Olympics: A fair ranking of proposed models
• Cosmological constraints on exotic injection of electromagnetic energy
• Relativistic axions from collapsing Bose stars
• Large-scale dark matter simulations
• Cold keV dark matter from decays and scatterings
• Revisiting cosmological bounds on sterile neutrinos
• Strong constraints on decay and annihilation of dark matter from heating of gas-rich dwarf galaxies
• Dynamical Dark Matter from Strongly-Coupled Dark Sectors
• Linear cosmological constraints on 2-body decaying dark matter scenarios and the $S_8$ tension
• The last Complex WIMPs standing
• Monochromatic neutrinos generated by dark matter and the see-saw mechanism
• Invisible neutrino decay in precision cosmology
• The Waning of the WIMP: Endgame?
• Late-time decaying dark matter: constraints and implications for the $H_0$-tension
• CMB anisotropy and BBN constraints on pre-recombination decay of dark matter to visible particles
• Constraints on dark matter to dark radiation conversion in the late universe with DES-Y1 and external data
• Direct Detection of Dark Matter -- APPEC Committee Report
• No H_0 Assistance from Assisted Quintessence
• Do you smell something decaying? Updated linear constraints on decaying dark matter scenarios
• Gravitational Wave Echo of Relaxion Trapping
• Updated Constraints and Future Prospects on Majoron Dark Matter
• Revisiting the Fermionic Dark Matter Absorption on Electron Target
• Shimmering gravitons in the gamma-ray sky
• Production of heavy sterile neutrinos from vector boson decay at electroweak temperatures
• Neutrino lines from MeV dark matter annihilation and decay in JUNO
• Can decaying dark matter scenarios alleviate both $H_0$ and ${\sigma }_8$ tensions?
• Hints of Neutrino Dark Matter scattering in the CMB? Constraints from the Marginalized and Profile Distributions
• Fully relativistic treatment of decaying cold dark matter in $N$-body simulations
• Large neutrino mass in cosmology and keV sterile neutrino dark matter from a dark sector
• Neutrino astronomy as a probe of physics beyond the Standard Model: decay of sub-MeV $B$-$L$ gauge boson dark matter
• Pico-charged intermediate particles rescue dark matter interpretation of 511 keV signal
• Comprehensive Constraints on Dark Radiation Injection After BBN
• Dark Matter Cosmology with Varying Viscosity: a Possible Resolution to the $S_8$ Tension
• Cosmological Constraints on Thermal Friction of Axion Dark Matter
• Type-II Majoron Dark Matter
• Twin Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• Cosmological decay of Higgs-like scalars into a fermion channel
• Euclid preparation. Sensitivity to non-standard particle dark matter model
• Astrophysical constraints from synchrotron emission on very massive decaying dark matter
• Sub-keV dark matter can strongly ionize molecular clouds
• Distinguishing thermal histories of dark matter from structure formation
• Revisiting big bang nucleosynthesis with a new particle species : effect of co-annihilation with nucleons
• Closing the window on WIMP Dark Matter
• Decaying Dark Matter: Simulations and Weak-Lensing Forecast
• Thermodynamics of an universe with Decaying Cold Dark Matter
• Constraining decaying dark matter with BOSS data and the effective field theory of large-scale structures
• Freeze-in Dark Matter via Lepton Portal: Hubble Tension and Stellar Cooling
• Stable dark matter from Pauli blocking in the degenerate fermion background with Quantum Field Theory
• Constraints on energy scales from dark matter decay in a gauged $B-L$ model
• Spectral distortions in the decaying QCD dark matter scenario